The Koran, or “The Recitation”, is the central text of the Muslim religion. It may also be written Qur’an, Quran or Al-Quran. In its original Arabic, it is believed to be the word of Allah (the Arabic word for “God”) dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. The first known Korans were printed from wooden blocks in the 10th century CE. Recently, the most expensive Koran was sold for £1,140,500 (over $2.3 million USD).
This expensive religious text is over 800 years old, having been dated to 1203 CE. Its most remarkable feature, though, is that the central text is written entirely in gold, with marginal notes written in silver. It is the oldest known complete copy of the Koran written in gold.
Sold at auction on behalf of the Hispanic Society of America, the gold Koran was expected, at most, to fetch less than three quarters of its final sale price. In the end, it not only shattered the record for the most expensive Koran, but also for the most expensive Islamic text ever sold.
